David Oscarson, supporting member 40,914, recently completed this video. He explained “in this video are time-lapse videos of clouds moving over the Mojave Desert, flora, fauna (wild horses) and cloud panoramas. I have expanded not only on cloud structures,but what is under the clouds and sky”.
Category: Homepage
September 15, 2020
September 11, 2020
Celia Parker, member 38266, often paints pictures of Dartmoor but thinks this is the first time she’s got the sky and the clouds just right.
September 8, 2020
Sarah McDougall, member 47,052, having talked to the curator of the Gathering Clouds exhibition in Christcurch, NZ contacted us to tell us about this exhibition in Rochester, New York.
September 4, 2020
Sofie Dieu (member 45,721) is an artist who uses ink to draw and paint nebulas and other cloud realms.
August 28, 2020
Robert Austin, member 43,207, recently sent his painting “Shower Cloud, Bamburgh Castle” in response to a Cloud-a-Day which featured a watercolour by Van Gogh.
August 26, 2020
It’s rare, it’s fleeting, it’s a fluctus cloud…
August 25, 2020
Christine Chatterton, member 52,072, sent us this photo and poem that she wrote.
August 21, 2020
Kay Söderlund, Society member 51,007, recently told us about a vital research project covering more than 20 years which has precisely measured the cooling rate in the upper atmosphere, about 90km above Antarctica.
August 18, 2020
Louise Morgan, Society member 28,857, contacted us following a recent Cloud-a-Day on the subject of the English Romantic landscape painters JMW Turner and John Constable were notorious rivals but who both loved painting clouds and the challenge of painting rainbows.
August 14, 2020
Andy Sallee, Society member 37,600, sent us this video taken whilst flying over and ‘surfing’ through clouds above the Northwestern Continental USA
August 11, 2020
Robyn Bartlett (member 24340) and Kim Stirling heard this interesting Australian radio segment combining the sounds of the Aurora Australis with a piano.
August 7, 2020
Sarah Howerd, member 46,352, found this Procreate painting tutorial by James Julier. She told us “This video is like a mix of Turner, Constable, and Bob Ross if they’d had a YouTube channel together
August 4, 2020
Robert Thurston recently sent this pastel of a cloud formation he saw.
July 31, 2020
Richard Bacon, member 51546, contacted us to tell us about an exhibition “Gathering Clouds” which is currently running at the Christchurch Art Gallery in New Zealand
July 28, 2020
Barry Aldous, member 43125, sent his recent timelapse video. He told us “I was attracted by the combination of cloud patterns and the confusing direction of travel!”
July 24, 2020
This painting was sent to us by artist, Amy Szwaya
July 21, 2020
Cloud of the Month for July is a Cumulonimbus with no interest in social distancing…
July 21, 2020
Rob Thompson (Society Member 28), sent us this documentary and told us “this is a special extended version of the Baddog Productions’ documentary “Secrets of a Strange Cloud” which we have put together for the Cloud Appreciation Society”
July 17, 2020
This pastel painting by Regina Calton Burchett is entitled “Morning Sky – Sail Away”
July 14, 2020
Keen cloudspotter, Roberto Porto, sent us his latest timelaspe video “el cielo afortunado”, the lucky sky, made completely in the island of Tenerife, Spain.
July 10, 2020
Madeleine Russell, of RAL Space recently contacted us to invite our members to take part in our online citizen science project.
July 7, 2020
Earlier this year Ann Kraus was featured in a solo show at Pleiadles Gallery in New York City which was attended by a few members of the Cloud Appreciation Society.
July 3, 2020
Massimiliano Squadroni sent this timelapse from a video which was activated last year thatnks to a crowdfunding campaign.
June 30, 2020
Claudia Zeiske told us about Under One Sky, “People log their miles and send a picture of their sky to Artist Iman Tajik, who will then create an art work from all of our clouds”
June 26, 2020
Photographers all around the world have been sharing their weather photos, some taken during lockdown, as part of the Weather Photographer of the Year 2020 competition – closing date is 6th July!
June 23, 2020
Cloud enthusiast, Bill Whitcher, recently came across this article on the Atlas Obscura website which he felt is an excellent description of clouds through space and art
June 18, 2020
Anyone for night Cloudspotting?
A mysterious, rippling veil of gossamer-like clouds hangs high in the sky over the Netherlands. Forming right up at the fringes of Space, these clouds are the very highest in our atmosphere. They’re known as noctilucent clouds, and they form in the mesosphere at altitudes of around 50 miles (85 kilometres), which is far above the troposphere – the part where usual ‘weather’ clouds form, in the lower 10 miles or so (15 kilometers). It is the extreme altitude of noctilucent clouds that ensures they are the only type of cloud you can spot in the middle of the night even when there’s no Moon to light them. Even when the Sun is well below the horizon and rest of the sky is in the Earth’s shadow, these super-high clouds still catch its light, shining out in neon blue hues against the darkened sky. This is why their name means ‘night-shining’ in Latin.
Now is the start of the season for spotting noctilucent clouds in the Northern Hemisphere because they only form during the summer. June always seems to be a good month for them. This is when their ice crystals are more likely to appear because, counterintuitively, summer is when the mesosphere is at its coldest. When temperatures are warmer down on the ground, the lower atmosphere is warmed too and the troposphere expands, causing it to push the upper atmospheric layers upwards, which leads to cooling of the mesosphere. Typically, you can only spot noctilucent clouds from latitudes (whether in the Northern or Southern Hemisphere) that are higher than 50 degrees latitude. This explains their more formal name, polar mesospheric clouds. Any higher than about 70 degrees, however, and the summer sky will never become dark enough for their subtle forms to be visible.
If you are at the right latitude during the right time of year, look out when the lower sky is clear for these ghostly streaks of pale blue shining among the stars, late in the night or in the early hours. Who said cloudspotting needs to end when the Sun goes down?
Noctilucent clouds spotted over Katwijk, Netherlands by Mark McCaughrean (Member 32,672).
Have you spotted a Noctilucent Cloud?
If you’ve managed to photograph one of these extremely high night-shining clouds, why not contribute your image to a new Noctilucent Cloud Showcase that we’re creating in collaboration with our friends at Go Stargazing? We plan to bring together the best noctiulcent cloud images as a new resource for nighttime cloudspotters.
June 17, 2020
It’s noctilucent cloud season!
We have teamed up with our friends at Go Stargazing to raise awareness of the mysterious and elusive noctilucent clouds. Named after the Latin for “night-shining” these night sky phenomena are where stargazing and cloudspotting meet. Normally, astronomers’ biggest fear is a cloudy sky, but they love these extremely high clouds, with their ghostly, rippled appearance, just as much as we do. We and Go Stargazing are therefore inviting our members and friends to contribute their favourite photographs of these formations to a new Noctilucent Cloud Photography Showcase, which we hope will become a go-to resource for nighttime cloudspotters. .
Noctilucent clouds, or NLCs, are the highest clouds in Earth’s atmosphere, located in the mesosphere at altitudes of around 76 to 85 km (47 to 53 mi). They are too faint to be seen in daylight, and are visible only when illuminated by sunlight from below the horizon while the lower layers of the atmosphere are in Earth’s shadow. Still not fully understood, they are most often observed from latitudes between 50° and 70° north and south of the Equator, visible only when the Sun is below the horizon. Noctilucent clouds appear during the summer months, so we are now in the season for spotting them in the Northern Hemisphere.
If you’ve managed to photograph one of these beautiful formations – whether it was this summer or on a previous year – why not submit it for inclusion in the photography showcase? We will publish the images as a cloudspotting resource both on the Cloud Appreciation Society and Go Stargazing websites. Gavin Pretor-Pinney (Member 001) will also discuss our favourites images in a special live broadcast about noctilucent clouds on the Cloud Appreciation Society Facebook Page.
To submit your image for inclusion in this showcase, upload it to Instagram tagging both @GoStargazing and @CloudAppSoc in the description or email it to nlc@gostargazing.co.uk (max size 5mb). Either way, please remember to include the location, date and time you took the photograph, as well as your name so that we can properly credit you. We can’t wait to see what you’ve managed to capture of these illusive nighttime cloud!
Submit your noctilucent cloud photograph:
On Instagram…
Tag @CloudAppSoc and @GoStargazing in the description.
Include the location, date and time you took the photograph, as well as your name so that we can properly credit you.
Photographers will retain all rights to their photograph(s). They will be giving permission to Go Stargazing and Cloud Appreciation Society to share their imagery with our respective audiences. Credit will be applied to the copyright holder in all instances.
June 17, 2020
David Oscarson, supporting member 40914 recently completed a video entitled “Springtime Over The Mojave Desert”
June 15, 2020
These examples over the US and Australia show how aircraft skywriting can be used to turn the sky into an advertising billboard. In the UK, advertising using aircraft smoke trails like this had been banned since 1960, but recent changes in legislation by the UK Government have made it legal. Now anyone can use the skies over Britain as an advertising billboard. We think this was a bad decision. We think the sky should remain one place where we don’t have to look at advertising and political messages. If you agree, please sign our petition to get the UK Government to reopen their inadequate public consultation on this that took place in March when the world was distracted by news of the Covid-19 pandemic, so that we can have this change in law overturned.
Aircraft skywriting over Sydney, Australia during a political march in 2017. (Photograph: © Max421 | Dreamstime.com)
Heineken advert made with five aircraft flying in parallel formation over New York City, US.in 2008. (Photograph: Brian Pennington, CC BY 2.0)
Religious skywriting message over Florida, US in 2011. (Photograph: Rhys Asplundh CC BY 2.0)
Advert for the Hooters restaurant chain over US, 2006. (Photograph: Oliver Wales, CC BY-ND 2.0)
Geico Insurance advert over San Francisco, US in 2012. (Photograph: Derek Wolfgram CC BY 2.0)
Advert for the Mohegan Sun casinos and hotels, over Boston, US in 2015. (Photograph: Steven & Courtney Johnson & Horwitz CC BY-SA 2.0)
Header image credits – Left: Cirrus clouds over the Isle of Colonsay, Scotland by Jacques Duijn (Cloud Appreciation Society Member 47,875), Right: Brian Pennington.
June 12, 2020
Marianne McKay, member 47,966, recently told us about an article in two parts by Don Pinnock writing for Maverick Life.
June 9, 2020
Cloudspotting is a wonderful way to exercise your imagination as shown in this poem by Janet Orselli
June 5, 2020
Elizabeth M Corsa, member 21191, has written a short essay on her addiction to cloud painting
June 2, 2020
Find out how the steady hand of the wind draws undulatus clouds in May’s Cloud of the Month…
May 29, 2020
Chris Tetley, member 10,338, recently sent us this poem inspired by clouds and wonders if they sometimes mimic our daily lives.
May 26, 2020
Jason Weir recently proposed this piece for the Music to Watch Clouds by page. He wrote, “Imagine you are an eagle flying high above the mountains, soaring between layers of cloud, one moment your vision obscured by gentle droplets, the next catching a glimpse of the vast upper atmosphere with its deepening blue hues…”
May 22, 2020
Andy Holton is an analog photography student at the Photographic Center Northwest
May 19, 2020
Pamela Crimmins, member 48,931, Shared this cloud diary video created by artist Elise D. for Studio In A School
May 15, 2020
Attention all amateur weather photographers! Enter your best weather photos in the 2020 Weatherwise Photography Contest. Winners will be featured in the September/October 2020 issue.
May 12, 2020
Ulrich Schmitt sent us the link to this timelapse video showing atmospheric effects by Lionsmith Studio.
